Abrasive articles, such as coated abrasives and bonded abrasives, are used in various industries to machine workpieces, such as by lapping, grinding, or polishing. Machining utilizing abrasive articles spans a wide industrial scope from optics industries, automotive paint repair industries, to metal fabrication industries. In each of these examples, manufacturing facilities use abrasives to remove bulk material or affect surface characteristics of products.
Surface characteristics include shine, texture, and uniformity. For example, manufacturers of metal components use abrasive articles to fine and polish surfaces, and oftentimes desire a uniformly smooth surface. Similarly, optics manufacturers desire abrasive articles that produce defect free surfaces to prevent light diffraction and scattering.
Manufactures also desire abrasive articles that have a high stock removal rate for certain applications. However, there is often a trade-off between removal rate and surface quality. Finer grain abrasive articles typically produce smoother surfaces, yet have lower stock removal rates. Lower stock removal rates lead to slower production and increased cost.
Particularly in the context of coated abrasive articles, manufactures of abrasive articles have introduced surface structures to improve stock removal rate, while maintaining surface quality. Coated abrasive articles having abrasive surface structures or patterns of raised abrasive layers, often called engineered or structured abrasives, typically exhibit improved useful life.
While the abrasive surfaces of the abrasive article generally influence stock removal rate and surface quality, a poor backing material can lead to degradation in other performance factors, such as machine wear and performance. For example, typical backing materials cause wear of mechanical components that secure the abrasive article. In particular, coated abrasive tapes and belts that advance through mechanical systems may wear shoes, back supports, and drums. Further, traditional backing materials may permit swarf and dislodged abrasive grains to become entrained between the backing and support components, causing wear.
To compensate for entrainment of swarf and grains, some manufacturers have turned to anti-static and hard surface coatings. However, such coatings often are difficult for a machine to secure, reducing machine performance. For example, such coated backings often lead to poor advancement of abrasive tape products through a machine or lead to bunching of tape in grind areas of the machine, each of which lead to down-time for repairs.
As such, an improved abrasive product including an improved backing material would be desirable.